Major League Baseball 2K8 Review

2k Sports’ Major League Baseball 2k8 is a good game wrapped in a frustrating mess.

On the one hand it has very solid graphics and great animations. Pitchers and hitters move like their real-life counterparts. It’s so accurate it gets a little creepy at times. And, at its core, the gameplay is simple but challenging.

Unfortunately, wrapped around that core are the new pitching and fielding systems.

The new pitching system is the worst addition to a sports game franchise since Madden’s vision cone. Rather than the old system where you just had to hold the button for the pitch to determine the power, then press it at the right time to determine the accuracy, you now have to move the right stick in the correct two-motion pattern for the pitch. For example to the left then a half-circle around the top.

Sounds easy? It’s not, because it’s ridiculously sensitive. A few degrees, a cough, a slip or a twitch will result in a meatball, which almost always results in a home run. Lean your controller a little off level and don’t realize it? Home run. Briefly lose the signal to your wireless controller? Home run. Plus they left the old power/accuracy timing system with the two motions rather than two button presses to add a whole second layer of complexity to it.

The fielding is almost as bad. In concept it’s great, rather than just hit the button for the base you hold the stick in that direction. Let go too early the throw is short, hold it too long and you overthrow. The problem is that the baserunner doesn’t slow down to let you wait for the meter to fill. It makes double plays a lot harder than they have to be.

Fortunately you can turn all that off.

Sure doing that sends you back to MLB 2k5 or so, it basically becomes a full-price roster update, but you still get to keep the baseball and the graphics and those make for a really solid, fun experience. All the game modes still work well and it’s a quality sports game.

I just wish it was that good out of the box without having to essentially downgrade the features.

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I was curious if anyone has tried this Sports Handicapping Service? I discovered his video on Youtube and it turns out the service is sold through clickbank which means it comes with a 60 day money back guarantee. Was wondering what peoples thoughts were.